ELF File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
File Identification Magic number: 0x7f followed by "ELF"
File Type Relocatable, Executable, Shared object, Core
Architecture 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order Little Endian, Big Endian
File Version Current
OS/ABI UNIX - System V, Linux, HP-UX, NetBSD, GNU Hurd, etc.
ABI Version Depends on the ABI
MIME Type application/x-elf
Segment Types PT_LOAD, PT_DYNAMIC, PT_INTERP, PT_NOTE, PT_SHLIB, PT_PHDR, PT_TLS
Section Types SHT_PROGBITS, SHT_SYMTAB, SHT_STRTAB, SHT_RELA, SHT_HASH, SHT_DYNAMIC, SHT_NOTE, SHT_NOBITS, SHT_REL, SHT_SHLIB, SHT_DYNSYM
Headers ELF Header, Program Header Table, Section Header Table
Entry Point Specifies where the process starts executing
Program Header Defines segments of the file to be loaded into memory
Section Header Defines sections of the file
Symbol Table Defines symbols used for linking and relocation
Relocation Adjusts symbol references when loading into memory
Dynamic Linking Defines how dynamic libraries are linked and used
Debugging Information Optionally included, used by debuggers
File Extension .elf
Typical Uses Executable applications, shared libraries, core dumps